Ranger 23-75 - A Decimal Number One-Shot
by Mackiecam
Summary: This one-shot presents the backstory for how Ranger feels about everything that is happening in Stephanie's life. It takes place after Trigger Happy 23 and Morelli's Argument 23 point 5, and before Threatening 24.


_This story is based on Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum's series, and takes place after Trigger Happy 23, also published by me under this website. This story is written in first person from Ranger's viewpoint. The characters are not my own._

Would it finally happen?

I had met Stephanie a few years ago. At first I was attracted to her, and I thought it was cute that she wanted to be a bounty hunter. After all, who would think that she could ever pick up felons? She was sexy and nice and every man's dream. I didn't think she had it in her to be a skip chaser. To be good at being a bounty hunter, you have to be a little tough. She wore her niceness on her sleeve. She was the kind of person who would give her skips the shirt off her back if she thought they needed it.

She kept asking me for help as if I was the bounty hunter guru, and I kept giving it to her. There was something about her. I didn't want her to get hurt. So I encouraged her to work out and I took her to the gun range, and I gave her hints on where to look for certain skips. I tried to teach her how to survive, and she learned quickly. But she retained her sweetness, despite working down in the pits with the depraved. She was like a breath of fresh air, a ray of sunshine. I looked forward to seeing her, and nothing made my day more than meeting up with her at the bonds office. We had become good friends. The kind of friends that you could count on to help you when you needed help, the kind of friends that told the other person when they were going to be out of town, the kind of friends that provided support no matter what.

But as much as I was attracted to her, I had started working on some clandestine operations, and it wouldn't make sense for me to put her in the kind of danger she would be in if she dated me. So I didn't ask her out, and she started seeing Morelli instead. It burned me every time I saw them together. It didn't matter how much respect I had for the man, I hated seeing Morelli with her.

She seemed mostly happy though, and I had to take a step back and let her live her life. The most that I could do was to provide a strong friendship, provide a place for her to go when life got a little too tough.

A few weeks ago, Stephanie had gotten shot. I thought my heart would stop when Morelli called me to tell me that she had been hurt. That's when it really hit me that I couldn't live without her. I could have assigned another staff member to guard her at Morelli's house but I wanted, needed, to know that she was alright. I guarded her personally, but it burned me every night when she went upstairs to his bed. When the person threatening her was caught, I went home again. It took everything I had to walk away from her, to let her have private time with Morelli. All I wanted to do was throw her over my shoulder caveman-style and take her back to my place.

Then this time, when Brodie was after her? Sure, Morelli had his family staying with him. If I had been him, however, I would have rented a room for Stephanie and me to stay in rather than let Stephanie stay with another man. Morelli was a good man, but he was a bit of a fool.

I didn't get him. I knew he cared deeply about Stephanie, but I think he was babied too much as a child. In some households, boy children are revered and girls are treated as dirt. I think that must have been what happened in Morelli's household, as he thinks of Stephanie in terms of himself. Sure, he might verbally recognize that Steph was going through a rough time, but he would do it with the comment that he then had to buy Rolaids in the Costco-sized pack because of her troubles. He blamed his problems on her. He hadn't realized that life wasn't always about him.

I could see that the relationship was on the rocks, even if Stephanie couldn't. But I wasn't going to say that to Stephanie. I couldn't live her life. The best I could do was to provide a safe place for her to fall.

I tried to be respectful of their relationship. Steph was struggling with being faithful to Morelli, and that was another way that I could tell that the relationship was doomed. She was loyal to a fault and cared deeply about others. For her to struggle with commitment, to me meant that she wasn't in the right relationship for her. If Morelli was the right person, she would be one hundred percent devoted to him. It was just the kind of person she was.

She was such a perfect person for me. She made me laugh at times when I didn't have anything to laugh about. She reminded me of my humanity just by being the person she was, and she awed me with her compassion and her tenacity, her intelligence and her ingenuity.

I hadn't wanted another person in my life after Rachel. I had briefly delved into a relationship with Jeanne. But with Stephanie I wanted, needed, it all. She was a person worth protecting, a person worth loving, a person worth taking a chance on. I didn't know how to tell her that, however, and I didn't know whether I had the right to. After all, she was seeing Morelli, even if she didn't seem like she was in love with him. Sure, she loved him. But I didn't think she was _in_ love with him.

As worried as I was about Stephanie, Brodie's threats were good for me. It let me spend more time with her, whether that was over a meal together or in training in the gym. I was incredibly turned on when grappling with her as I was teaching her self-defense, and if it wasn't for the fact that any staff member could see into the gym when we were working out, I might have encouraged things along further. It was just about killing me to sleep beside her every night and not touch her. Especially when I was waking up with her touching me.

And then my birthday came. I decided to push things a bit and see where we ended up. If Stephanie had seemed enthralled by Morelli, I would have respected their relationship more. But there seemed to be a bit of ambivalence to their relationship. So I kissed her, and she opened up. I touched her, and she moaned. It had always been explosive between the two of us, and this time was no exception. As I sunk into her, I was lost.

I can't tell the number of times we made love. All I know was that I didn't want the night to ever end. It was the best night of my life.

The next morning, Stephanie could barely look at me. She was being eaten up by all that good Catholic guilt, and I had to scramble to try to recapture that easy friendship again, all while giving her unconditional support. It was a tough balancing act.

And I was doing it all with a bad feeling in my stomach. I don't know if it was because Stephanie looked so guilty or whether it was because of the takedown we had planned for the day. All I knew was that I had the same sort of feeling in my stomach that I had when a mission was about to go sideways. The situation with Morelli and Stephanie was a clusterfuck waiting to happen. I put that aside. Worrying was an unproductive emotion and I needed to focus on Brodie's takedown. It was the only way that I could ensure that Stephanie would be safe, and her safety was what was important.

Tank was laughing at me. He could tell by the expression on my face that I'd had a good night. He had known that it was my birthday and had offered to take me out for dinner – and he knew that I had declined so that I could spend more time with Stephanie. He shook his head with a chuckle and left the building.

Stephanie walked me down to the parking garage to say goodbye. I waited until Tank and Hal had left, then pulled Stephanie into a deep kiss. Just like any other time, she melted in my arms. And then, because the bad feeling in my stomach was growing, I told her that the night before had been the best night of my life. I needed her to know that. I didn't know how else to tell her how much she meant to me without it impacting on her relationship with Morelli. As much as I wanted Morelli out of the picture, I didn't want to cause Stephanie any problems. She was full of sunshine and lightness and love, and she didn't need me making her life difficult.

The stakeout was a boring bust, and I spent my time daydreaming about Stephanie. But that bad feeling in my stomach remained, and all I wanted to do was return to Rangeman and make sure that Stephanie was alright. Something told me that I needed to be there. I was just about to call off the remainder of the surveillance when Rafael told us that Brodie was in the lobby. I raced to the office as I heard Stephanie say that she was going in. My heart jumped into my throat and I panicked. I told her to stand down, that I was just three minutes away. I was actually six, but I pushed the pedal to the metal. She said she was going in anyway, and when Morelli ordered her to stay away, she said that Brodie had shot Ralph. I knew then that, no matter how much we argued with her, she would go in to protect my staff member. She was that kind of person, and I couldn't get mad about it. That level of protectiveness was one of the things I loved about her. I sped up faster.

I heard her talking to Brodie, and I heard a shot. My heart just about stopped. What happened if she died before I ever got the chance to tell her that she was my life?

I made it to the office and parked haphazardly in front of the building. I ran inside. Stephanie was doing a good job subduing Brodie, and I could only be glad that we had started self-defense lessons. I vowed to continue to offer them to Stephanie. Every little advantage I could give her would be to her benefit.

I kicked aside the guns and helped capture Brodie, then pulled Stephanie up and into my arms with a grateful sigh. I said a mental thank you to whoever was responsible for keeping her safe and kissed her. She was shaking, and I massaged her back, took off my hoody and wrapped her in it, and rubbed her arms to try to warm her up. The bad feeling in my stomach lessened with knowing that she was safe, and I needed her in my arms just as much as she needed the contact.

Morelli ran in and saw that I was providing support, and his face turned red. He yanked Stephanie towards him and gave her a hug – and then he started to yell. My staff all stopped doing what they were doing as they looked at him in shock, and I got mad. Didn't he know that he had the best woman in the world as his girlfriend? Didn't he know that she had gone through bone-deep terror that morning? Didn't he know that she deserved to be cherished and not castigated? I stayed beside Stephanie to provide silent support as he berated her. I told him that it would be a better idea for him to walk away until he cooled off. While I wanted Stephanie for myself, I didn't believe that Stephanie should have to put up with the abuse – and that's what it was. Verbal abuse.

Stephanie asked whether they were through, and Morelli inferred that they were. I felt like standing up and cheering. I looked across at Tank, and he looked relieved. He cared about Stephanie like a sister, and he didn't like hearing her get abused like that either.

I wondered if this time their break-up would stick. It wouldn't be the first time that I had gotten excited about them breaking up.

Stephanie left for my apartment, but I could tell from the catch in her voice that she was really going up to my apartment for a good cry. I wanted to go with her but knew that she would want some space. She was an independent woman and would need some time to deal with her emotions by herself.

When she left, I looked over at Morelli. Stephanie walking away seemed to be what he needed to shock him back into realizing what he had done. His face turned white and he collapsed on a chair. I went across to him. I wanted to yell at him for abusing Stephanie the way he had, but he looked so devastated that I didn't have the heart to berate him. The anger was my problem, not his. I asked him if he was okay, and he nodded jerkily.

I looked after Ralph and finished as fast as I could at the crime scene, but I was still angry at Morelli when I finished. I went up to my office to try to get a few minutes to myself to calm down from the morning's events. Stephanie had put her gun on my desk. I swallowed hard. The bad feeling in the pit of my stomach intensified. I drove the gun over to Stephanie's apartment and put it in her cookie jar. I somehow knew that she'd want to go home again now that Brodie had been caught.

I raced back to Rangeman and grabbed some lunch from the break room on the way up to the seventh floor. I walked into the apartment, and Stephanie was standing at the door with her bag already packed. I was glad that I had hurried at her apartment. I wouldn't have wanted to have missed her.

She still looked devastated. Her eyes were red and her face was all blotchy from crying, and her body language was stiff and tense. I asked her if it was a good idea for her to go. She looked like she was about to shatter. She said she needed to escape, and although I didn't like it, I understood. I got her to eat some lunch before she left. I knew that, if I didn't make sure she had a stable base in her stomach, she wouldn't eat anything other than a peanut butter and olive sandwich for dinner. How that combination didn't turn her stomach, I never did understand.

Against my better judgment, I helped her carry Rex down to her car and I tried to make sure that she knew she was welcome back any time she wanted to return. As I watched her drive out of the parking lot, that bad feeling in my stomach intensified again.

I went back up to my office and tried to settle down to work, but an hour after Stephanie had left I got a call from Morelli. Brodie had been bonded out, and Morelli couldn't get in touch with Stephanie. He said he was stuck in a meeting and he wanted me to check in with her to make sure she was okay. I was in my car by the time I got off the phone with Morelli.

I was running up the stairs to her apartment when I heard the shot, and my stomach dropped out in fear for the second time that day. I raced down to her apartment and entered carefully. She was sitting on her sofa staring blank-faced at Brodie lying on the floor. I checked. Brodie was dead. She had hit him square in his heart. I phoned Morelli. Steph was still staring at Brodie with a dazed expression on her face. I pulled her onto my lap and cuddled her as she started to shudder.

Morelli arrived shortly after I called him, along with a number of police officers. Stephanie answered their questions, but she wasn't all there. She was stuck on the horror of everything that had happened to her. Morelli tried to apologize for blowing up at her earlier, and Stephanie shook harder. He told her that he would be back later to talk. Couldn't he see that talking was the last thing she needed? Cuddling, a safe place to cry, a safe place to acclimatize herself to the fact that she had taken another life, yes. Talking about their relationship, no. I know they needed to talk eventually, but the timing of the conversation was terrible. I stepped in. I don't normally make decisions for her, but I did this time. She wasn't capable of making a decision on her own. I told him that I was bringing her to my house and that she was going to stay a few days until she got her feet under her again. I told him he wasn't helping things. He went a little red at that, but then he looked at her still sitting there in shock, and he nodded. "Take care of her", he said and he left the apartment with the other police officers.

I tugged Stephanie after me and went into her bedroom, packed her bag, and threw the strap over my shoulder. I picked up Rex's cage, locked the door, and guided Stephanie to the elevators.

We got to my place and made it to the sofa before Stephanie broke down. My heart was breaking at hearing her distress, and I wished that I could have been the person who had shot Brodie just so that she wouldn't have to go through that. I wouldn't have found it any easier, but at least she wouldn't be stuck feeling the pain. Another black mark on my soul wouldn't have made that much of a difference, not like it would with Stephanie.

Steph cried for about an hour, and then just sat on my lap cuddled in for another two hours. I didn't say anything, and neither did she. I was just pleased that she was in one piece, and that she was in a safe place.

Morelli must have called five times that night. Steph let each of his calls go to a message.

She said this time the break seemed more permanent. She said that Morelli hadn't changed his view of her chosen profession and her ability to do the job in the last several years, and she didn't think that he ever would. She said that he wanted a stay-at-home wife to do the laundry and the cleaning and the cooking and to raise the babies, but she wasn't sure that he wanted _her_ in the role – and she knew for certain that _she_ wasn't interested either. She said that Morelli was very traditional and had traditional views on marriage, but that she didn't have what it took to make him happy. She said she wasn't enough for Morelli, and she was tired of trying. Personally, I couldn't understand anyone thinking that Stephanie wasn't enough for them.

She talked a lot. She needed a friend, and I tried to provide that to her. I tried not to overwhelm her with my love for her. I tried not to tell her what to do. It was hard, though. I wanted to tell her that she should run away from Morelli, that Morelli wasn't any good for her. She was full of lightness, and Morelli sucked the life out of her. It was always Stephanie versus Morelli when there was a problem that needed to be solved. I didn't want that. I wanted a relationship where it was me and Stephanie, united as a team, fighting the problem together. So I listened and let her talk and I tried to provide objective advice.

I already wasn't looking forward to when Stephanie decided to go back to her apartment again. But maybe, maybe if I supported her enough, Steph would give me a chance when the relationship with Morelli had run its course.

I could only hope.


End file.
